WWSR to be continued……

Six of us gathered on a cool Autumn morning at TNR the day after Storm Austen had hit North Wales. We were apprehensive and actually thought our White Water Safety course would have been cancelled. Luckily, the day was to begin in a classroom with warm coffee and biscuits provided by Richard, the owner of TNR and our trainer for the weekend. 

We spoke about essential kit, correctly fitting helmets and BA’s simple things that we often overlook but are actually tools that can be life-saving. What other essential kit do you think you need to go paddling? Throw bag, Carabiners- what type? Twist lock, snap gate, screw gate many different styles but each to be thought about and have different strengths and weaknesses. After much discussion and learning, dinner time arrived, and after this we were getting into the water.

We spent four hours of the afternoon learning how to swim across eddy lines, how to flow down a rapid, with feet downstream, slightly bent knees and bum up so as not to bang it against the rocks. Throwing tow lines at swimmers and working out good positioning in case the first line wasn’t caught. All in all, we learnt and practised a lot. But as the day progressed, the river was rising, and coldness started to seep in. We called it a day. Some of us stayed over in vans, a couple went home for a warm shower and the comfort of their own bed. 

The next day we got up to a surprisingly large brown River. The Dee had risen quite significantly overnight. We met up with Richard in the classroom and had a brief discussion; as a team we decided it was not ideal for us to exercise the rescues and swims that we learnt the day before as the volume of water was too great for us to practice without it turning into a real situation. So our course has been set for a new day to be continued on November 20th…… 

Ian, Andy, Mike, Dom, Oscar, Jacki